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Archive for August, 2009

So here I am back after over a month in the wilderness. I must say a vacation from blogging does a soul good. There hasn’t been that much to report that would interest anyone but me.

Lots of TV interviews ( always a good thing) so all is excellent on the work front. On the personal front I have been overtaken with a general urge to see some physical changes around me. This has manifested itself in a change of car and a change of condo decor. It was sad to see the Mondeo go but the unavailability of a part to fix the damned A/C unit and my complete inability to tolerate heat made our separation unavoidable. The new owners seem thrilled with her and I must say I am enjoying zipping about in my sky blue Ford Focus, The leather seats are a bit of a bother but she is economical and is dead easy to park. Me and Ford…Stockholm Syndrome epitomized.

I have also embarked on spending silly amounts of money on changing around the condo. I now have a newly refurnished living room complete with a matching 3-piece set. I have always been known for my eclectic taste in furniture and have never owned a matching set of any kind of furniture in my life. I have a nasty feeling I may be suffering bourgeois creep . There I was sitting on my divan covered with African fabric watching TV one day and I thought this whole arrangement isn’t working for me. Why, I asked myself, does a grownup have a divan, an Adirondack chair and a Morris rocker in his living room? Sure it is eclectic but there is much to be said for having chairs that my few guests can actually sit in without getting either a sprained back or a nasty case of splinters. Thanks to some painful hunting around I found a moderately tasteful set ( not easy in Trinidad..it really was the only half-decent set I saw out of hundreds),and after a further hunt I found a natural wool rug that makes me want to lie on the floor.

Thank heavens for friends because if Alvin had not been over to initiate the process of getting the old stuff out of the way I would be still agonizing over where to start. Tomorrow, he has promised to come over and cart off the old stuff to see if he can get a sale for it..even if he doesn’t I will be happy to get it off my balcony and spare room so I can actually use those spaces. It will take a while of bumping into things for me to feel fully comfortable in the new layout but it definitely feels more open and much better for entertaining. I already have my short list of people I plan to invite over right after I Scotchgard the rug…wool is lovely but wine spills fill me with dread.

Just came back home from seeing Julie & Julia with Alvin, Binky and Alvin’s nephew and niece who are visiting from the US. I would recommend the film to anyone who loves cooking as it really is fun and how many other movies have aspic? That being said I was so captivated by Meryl Streep’s channeling of Julia Child ( a major influence on my culinary views) that I wondered why they bothered to mix her story up with the parallel story of a modern blogger trying out all her recipes. Sure it reminded me to blog but I wanted to see more of Meryl and Julia Child’s fascinating story…I feel robbed by the other half of the movie. I don’t think it is possible to act in a film with Streep and be remembered afterwards..she is just that good.

Time to recline on my new couch for a moment and watch the Food Network. Bon Apetit!